The Living Below Your Means Board began as an offshoot of the Credit Card Board as a place to discuss tips for saving money.

What is Living Below Your Means ?

A personal choice ;) It means different things to different people. For many, it means making conscious choices to use your money to do/buy things that are important to you. Many of the discussions involve spending less for the things you do choose to buy.

Generic internetLOL - Laughing Out LoudBTW - By the WayIMHO - In My Humble OpinionROFL - Rolling on the floor laughingROFLMAO - Laughing so hard that a body part flies offROFLMAOPIMP - laughing where body parts fly off and control is lost.

Do not get involved in real estate rental unless you love to get dirty. Real estate rental is a "dirty" business. Stocks, bonds, and options are "clean." As a former landlord (rural and city properties), my opinion is the only real estate one should own is his home.

"As a former landlord my opinion is the only real estate one should own is his home."

I absolutely agree. I have been in the rental business for 14 years, but hope to sell the rest of my houses over the next couple. As an investor ( always disliked the word landlord) I HATE renting but LOVE buying old houses to fix up and resell. Fix/sell is a better return on capital, less hassle, fewer headaches, no midnight phone calls, no tenant burning down the place. You get the picture.

If you are interested in investing in real estate because of the potential for income and capital appreciation and want to keep your hands clean, there is another option. REITs (short for Real Estate Investment Trusts) are a tax efficient pass-through vehicle which allow you to recieve current income from real estate portfolios. They are publicly traded(most on the NYSE), liquid companies and deserve consideration as part of any diversified portfolio. In fact, many REITs are currently undervalued and may offer a better risk adjusted return than if you were to purchase real estate and fix it (or develop it) yourself. This is because the only cost to buy and sell are the commissions($7 on ameritrade each way), and you will not be left carrying a vacant property should you try to sell in a bad market (plus there is no personal recourse mortgage). Check these securities out. You can go to www.nareit.com to learn more about the industry and TMF offers an excellent board under industry/real estate where professionals more qualified than I discuss current topics and answer questions to newcomers.Hope this is helpful.

Here is something I can pass along which will help fools part less often with credit card money. Take your credit card out of your wallet,into in a separate check book register.Each time you buy something ,take out your pen and register the amount you spend,just like a check.Sometimes it helps to pretend you are an eccentric millionaire,but hey! Fool ON. You actually will spend much less.It works!Do not be fooled by the VISA people, this is your money, its real money.

Cook soup in an overnight cooker every three days. I cook it on my patio in the summer. Ingredients: veggies, grains, beans, spices, seaweed. Only add meat for flavoring... Meat is very expensive. The indian spices that help promote digestibility of beans: coriander, cumin and turmeric.

I can understand how some would not like renting out property, but I find it interesting and more "hands on" than financial investments. I think the key is that you have to really want to turn out a good product and the rest takes care of itself. I keep my renters happy and they in-turn keep me happy. The returns are so great, both cash flow and appreciation, that it seems much easier and less risky than stocks. Plus, when things go wrong you can always improve your property -- you can't improve General Motors if it takes a bad turn. Since the US population is expected to jump by 70% in the next fifty years, it real estate seems to be just about the soundest investment you could make.

Hate to say it but your boyfriend is NOT going to change. He may pretend he will but he never will.

Let me give you the rationale; If you find a hungry cat you did not want in your house, you probably feed him and sent it his way, hoping he will never return. Guess what? When the cat gets hungry again, he will return, and you will probably feed him again, and you may wonder, why is that the cat will not go away? If you just stop feeding the cat, eventually the cat will never return.

Well, your boyfriend in this case is the cat..... Honest advice......a) Stop feeding him (paying his share)b) Get rid of him (he is not worth it)c) Get back on your feet (will not be very easy but is possible)d) Don't fall on this trap again (lear from this lesson)

I was very encouraged to read the post regarding the couple who didn't begin investing till they were in their 40's but will be set for retirement in 14 yrs! I have been postponing beginning investing because I was under the misconception that we would never accumulate enough to retire on in the next 15 to 20 yrs!

We have been living on one income since my DH was transferred to a lower-income-for-me-area years ago. Just wasn't feasable to work for next to minimum wage and pay child care. So-later in life I returned to school and gained a marketable degree and began working in the chosen field 5 mo. ago. DH has 401k w/employer matching we have never really taken advantage of. We went so long scraping by it has been hard to let go of some of the money to invest with. We are in our mid 40's.

But hearing your story was very encouraging. I still wonder if the amount we are able to invest on a monthly basis will be enough to net a decent living on retirement. I did the retirement planner on our investment co.'s website and it was very confusing. Is $600 per month into a balanced 401k mix of foreign and domestic stocks going to do it in 15-20 years or should we plan on working till age 70? We have 2 kids to help through college and quite a bit of debt to pay.Thanks for your response.

"Take your credit card out of your wallet,into in a separate check book register.Each time you buy something ,take out your pen and register the amount you spend,just like a check."

Excellent suggestion!

Another way to do this is to put your CC account on Quicken or MS Money. I have done this since January and am appalled by how our CC balance grows. Now, we pay our balance off every month, but .... there's something about watching that amount go up and up that will make you rethink every purchase.

I agree, I've been the "landlady" for almost 8 years, and while there are certainly downers to the renting game, it's paid my mortgage almost in full for that last 5 years. Some things to make it work: Always take a chance on a stranger rather than a friend, usually you'll lose less money with a stranger, and you won't lose a friend. Don't rent to anyone it wouldn't bother you to never speak to again, because that can happen. Write a lease with an out clause! It does you no good to have a tenant unhappy with the place and forced to live there for 8 more months. Keep the rent amount protected for them for 12 months, they need that, but 60 (or 30) days written notice by either party and the game is over. Not all arrangements will work, make it easy for you both to move on. Set limits! such as no phone calls after 8 pm unless an emergency situation arises. Treat tenants with the respect that everyone deserves, it they repeatedly do not return the favor, take your opportunity to terminate the lease and more on. Rent for a little less that you could actually get, people don't want to risk losing a bargain.

My first time posting here. I work for a big, national law firm, and we got the news at the end of 2002 that there will be no lay-offs, but no raises either. Salaries are frozen for 2003. We just found out last week, however, that we will be paid our bonuses for 2002 (as we have every year since I've been here), so that was good news. I never count on getting a bonus, so its always a nice way to start off the new year. Everyone I've talked to here doesn't really mind the salary freeze situation (we are paid pretty well here) - I'm just glad to have a good job, good benefits, and the security of knowing I can make the mortgage payments.